Pentagon policy chief tells European NATO members to boost combat capabilities
Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has told European NATO defense ministers in Brussels that they must increase their combat capabilities and take the lead in defending their continent from the Russian threat.
The influential undersecretary for war, sent by the White House to replace his boss, Pete Hegseth, said the US would reduce conventional forces in Europe but insisted that Washington remained committed to the military alliance.
Colby stressed that Europe needed to move "beyond inputs and goals towards outcomes and capabilities" as he sought to restore relations after last month's debate over Greenland, which Donald Trump had requested from Denmark, foreign media wrote, according to the Telegraph.
"This means prioritizing combat effectiveness over bureaucratic and regulatory stagnation. It means making difficult choices about force structure, readiness, reserves and industrial capacity that reflect the realities of modern conflict rather than the politics of peace," Colby told NATO allies on Thursday.
Last summer, European NATO members agreed to increase core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 to reach U.S. levels, but it is unclear what this increased militarization will mean in practice.
Colby's comments were made behind closed doors in a brief speech to 31 other NATO members at the start of a meeting of the alliance's defense ministers in Brussels.
Surprisingly, they were released by the Pentagon shortly thereafter.
Although he stressed that the US would continue to provide an "extended nuclear force", he said Washington's forces - currently numbering about 85,000 in Europe - would be deployed "in a more limited and focused manner".
He is said to be one of the most vocal supporters in the Trump administration of shifting American military attention away from Europe.
The "most important" interests for the US were in deterring China and in America, he said, while Europe would need to take "leadership on its conventional defense."
However, Colby also made it clear that the US "will continue to prepare our forces to do their part" under NATO's Article 5, which states that an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all - a promise that has been repeatedly questioned by Trump.
Last month, the US president made repeated attempts to force Denmark to hand over Greenland, with the White House repeatedly indicating that it would not rule out using military force to take control of the Arctic territory from its NATO ally.
Mark Rutte, NATO's secretary-general, sought to distance himself from the unprecedented debate, arguing that an alliance of democracies would always have "debates and discussions," and he said Colby's comments showed the US was "anchored in NATO."
"The good news is that this alliance always finds a way forward, to come together, to refocus on our overarching goal, which is to keep 1 billion people safe," Rutte said, arguing that Article 5 remained intact.
Although the decision to send Colbyn instead of Hegseth was a clear attempt to demonstrate that NATO had diminished in importance to the US, European diplomats insisted that he was still an important figure, close to the vice president, JD Vance.
In December, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, skipped a meeting of NATO foreign ministers and sent deputy secretary Christopher Landau instead. After addressing his counterparts in Brussels, Landau left the meeting early.
But Colby stayed for the entire three-hour meeting on Thursday, listening to the 31 other defense ministers deliver speeches of up to three minutes each. This was seen as a sign of respect for NATO members.
Ukraine's allies pledged $35 billion in military aid this year after a meeting of NATO defense ministers, according to the UK's defense secretary, John Healey.
The pledges were made at a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine, a group of 50 countries, which took place the afternoon after the NATO session. /Telegrafi/
